No. 2 Houston Basketball Falls To No. 6 Iowa State In Late-Game Battle
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Houston basketball went on the road and fell short of handing Iowa State its first home loss of the season. The Cyclones held on to defeat the Cougars 70-67.
The Cougars blew a 10-point lead late in the game, and now they have lost their lead in the Big 12 Conference standings.
With the loss, Houston falls to 23-3 on the season and 11-2 in the conference.
Houston vs Iowa State Game Recap
Houston got an early taste of why Ames is one of the toughest places to play in the entire country as the Cyclones stormed out to 13-5, which forced head coach Kelvin Sampson to take a timeout.
After the break, the Cougars went on a 21-8 run to take a six point lead. Senior guard Emanuel Sharp was the key offensively for Houston early on, scoring 16 points in the first half with four three-pointers.
Despite shooting 52 percent in the first half, the Cougars still found themselves trailing 43-40 at halftime.
Houston found their rhythm defensively to start the second half, which helped them obtain a 10 point lead with less than seven minutes remaining.
However, Iowa State’s defense tightened up and Houston had no answer for several possessions, and the Cyclones tied the score at 63-63.
After a back and forth contest, Iowa State made two huge threes late in the game to lead 69-67. Houston had the ball with 19 seconds left and a chance to tie or take the lead.
Freshman guard Kingston Flemings slipped and the ball ended up in freshman forward Chris Cenac’s hands, and he missed a close jumper and the Cyclones gained possession, which ultimately sealed the game.
Flemings led the way for Houston with a solid performance, finishing the contest with 22 points and four assists.
However, the freshman did have three costly turnovers which really impacted the outcome of this game, and he will need to have better ball security going forward.
Sharp followed in scoring, but due to foul trouble, he did not record a single point in the second half of the game. Without Houston’s leader on the floor, the Cougars offense was nonexistent late in the game and that played a huge part of the blown lead.
Senior guard Milos Uzan played a strong 35 minutes, totaling 11 points and six assists. The trusty point guard had a chance to just about seal the game at the free throw line with less than a minute remaining; however, he was too long on the attempt and that gave Iowa State all the momentum that they needed to close the game.
Chris Cenac Jr. was one of the best players on the floor because of his effort on the boards. Tonight, he grabbed 12, and it is clear that he has made it a huge emphasis to rebound the ball.
Overall, tonight was not a bad loss for Houston, but now they are back tied with Arizona State for the conference lead.
Now, the Cougars will turn their focus to facing No. 4 Arizona this Saturday at 2 p.m., inside the Fertitta Center.
Ashton Grissom is a staff writer for Houston Cougars on SI. He is currently a senior at the University of Houston and majoring in Sports Media Production with a minor in Marketing and Spanish. He also works for two student organizations: The Cougar and CoogTV. You can find Grissom on his Instagram (@ashtonagrissom8) or Twitter (@ashtongrissom8).